Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim smiles as he waits for his paperwork at the Elections Enforcement Commission where he announced his candidacy of governor in Hartford, Conn. on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim smiles as he waits for his paperwork at the Elections Enforcement Commission where he announced his candidacy of governor in Hartford, Conn. on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.

Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim is interviewed by Chaz of WPLR radio's Chaz & A.J. morning program where he formally announced his candidacy for governor in Milford, Conn. on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim is interviewed by Chaz of WPLR radio's Chaz & A.J. morning program where he formally announced his candidacy for governor in Milford, Conn. on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.

Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim enters the Capitol Press Room where he met with reporters to formally announce his candidacy for governor at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn. on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim enters the Capitol Press Room where he met with reporters to formally announce his candidacy for governor at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn. on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.

Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bridgeport Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Joe Ganim meets with the Hearst Connecticut Media Group editorial board in the Norwalk headquarters on Monday, October 2, 2017.

Bridgeport Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Joe Ganim meets with the Hearst Connecticut Media Group editorial board in the Norwalk headquarters on Monday, October 2, 2017.

Photo: Cathy Zuraw / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Police Chief Armando A.J. Perez speaks at the monthly Communities Working for a Better and United Bridgeport meeting at the Morton Government Center in Bridgeport, Conn. Dec. 18, 2017.

Police Chief Armando A.J. Perez speaks at the monthly Communities Working for a Better and United Bridgeport meeting at the Morton Government Center in Bridgeport, Conn. Dec. 18, 2017.

Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Detective Ramon Garcia

Detective Ramon Garcia

Photo: Cathy Zuraw / Hearst Connecticut Media

Council resolution targets Ganim’s police detail

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BRIDGEPORT — With half of the City Council now politely urging or demanding the mayor pay back the costs of using local cops on his gubernatorial campaign, Police Chief Armando “A.J.” Perez is trying to reduce the overtime those officers earn.

The two detectives and a lieutenant that made up Ganim’s 2017 security detail earned nearly $70,000 total in overtime.

“It’s going to be a significant cut,” Perez pledged in an interview late this week. The chief said Ganim’s regular driver, Detective Ramon Garcia, and sometime fill-in Detective Sean Ronan, have been assigned to evening and morning shifts, respectively, to try and avoid the need to pay either overtime accept, if necessary, on weekends. Perez said unrelated internal changes within the detective bureau made Ronan more available for mayoral security.

Meanwhile Councilman Peter Spain and some colleagues submitted a resolution calling on Ganim to reimburse the city for security while running for governor.

The resolution is on the council’s agenda Tuesday for referral to the budget committee.

Ganim’s security detail, its cost, and his sometime use of both a city vehicle and police driver last year while exploring a gubernatorial bid, had already come under fire locally. Then Jan. 3, Ganim’s first day as an official gubernatorial candidate, his rented campaign vehicle, driven by Garcia, was stopped by a state trooper in Southington for speeding at 87 mph.

A Hearst reporter in the car at the time saw the speedometer needle hit 100 mph.

Anything over 85 mph is reckless driving. Garcia received a verbal warning from the trooper and, back in Bridgeport, from Perez.

Subsequently the council’s budget committee this week pledged to examine the costs of Ganim’s security detail in February. But Spain decided to go a step further and introduce his resolution: “Constituents want a clear statement, without delay, that demonstrates that their elected representatives are watching out for them and their interests, using the council’s authority to demand sensible safeguards.”

“He (Ganim) should have protection as long as he’s doing the business of the city,” said Newton. “But not the business of running for governor. Newton added: “Especially when we have a city that’s strapped” for money.

Three other council members — President Aidee Nieves, Budget Committee Co-Chairwoman Maria Zambrano Viggiano and committee member Jeanette Herron in interviews said the mayor’s campaign should reimburse the city. That means half of the 20-person council — all Democrats like Ganim — have taken a public position on the controversy so far.

“I want the money back,” Nieves said. “I want it to be reimbursed if this is a service we’re providing outside of the realm of his (Ganim’s) responsibility as mayor.” But, Nieves said, “the gray area” is whether the council can “legally” pursue the funds.

Perez, an ally of Ganim’s and his driver when the mayor first ran Bridgeport in the 1990s, has repeatedly defended the need for the security, arguing there have been threats against Ganim and safety issues previously reported, and some “we don’t publicize.”

And Ganim and City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer have cited an old state ethics opinion applied to then-Lt. Gov. Eunice Groark. Groark, while running for governor in 1994, was required to reimburse the state mileage for use of her state vehicle, but allowed to use her regular security “regardless of the particular activity she may be engaged in, including campaigning.”

Ganim’s campaign, according to finance reports, reimbursed Bridgeport $2,600 for mileage in the fall, and $3,440 in December.

Reached at her home in Bloomfield, Groark recalled Ganim was convicted of corruption in 2003 when first mayor of Bridgeport.

“I would think he would try to make some sort of a payment back to the city for the officers’ time,” Groark said. “As a person who is hoping to become governor, I think he should take every step with a lot of thought behind it when you get to the money thing. I think that’s so important, basically because of his background.”